Annual Report 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic continued to pose challenges, although not as last year and the restrictive measures were a bit relaxed.
Despite this challenge and several others, the LAGA team obtained tangible achievements in its collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) in the fight against wildlife crime.
Achievements were obtained in the fields of investigations, arrest operations, prosecutions, media exposure and government relations with focus on the fight against the trafficking in live primates, pangolin scales and parrots.
The EAGLE network's Central Coordination Unit (CCU) continued to provide vital technical and organisation support that facilitated several operations resulting in a significant number of arrests.
Trafficking in primates and pangolin scales drew much of the attention. A major trafficker was arrested with 331kg of pangolin scales and a customs official was arrested with a mandrill.
27 major traffickers were arrested at a rate of one for every two weeks and approximately 55 % stayed before trial started.
This is a usually very low rate of arrested traffickers kept behind bars.
27 new cases were brought to the courts.
21 traffickers were found guilty and the courts ordered the payment of damages totalling 227,685,000 FCFA (about $455,370) to MINFOF by the convicted traffickers.
Media exposure was at a rate almost one media piece per day.
